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NY TIMES - Apr 7 - Yoke.me, a new online dating start-up, pulls in data from Facebook and then generates matches with people from users' extended social circle, based on common interests. Sites and apps like OKCupid, eHarmony, Skout, PlentyofFish and Match.com have attracted loyal followings. But in a world where we can pay someone for lunch by tapping two phones together and stream live television over a tablet computer, the de facto model of browsing through static profiles on a Web site or in a mobile app can feel comically outdated. It may not be a problem that software can solve on its own, said Eli Finkel, a professor of social psychology at Northwestern University. “Technology is not the way to figure out who is compatible and will never be,” he said. The system that eHarmony has built is “based on years of empirical and clinical research on married couples,” said Becky Teraoka, an eHarmony spokeswoman. They include “aspects of personality, values and interest, and how pairs match on them, that are most predictive of relationship satisfaction.” While Professors Finkel and Reis question the value of algorithms, they do say that online dating is useful because it can broaden the pool of people you come across on a regular basis. But Kevin Slavin, a game developer who studies algorithms, says those sites are already starting from a flawed base. The digital personas we cultivate on Facebook are often not very indicative of who we are, he said. Rob Fishman, who helmed the development of Yoke.me, says he views the service as an icebreaker.

SEARCH ENGINE LAND - Apr 6 - Google says it’s spending “millions of dollars” to police AdWords ads to ensure they’re not contributing to human trafficking, but the head of a victim’s rights group seems to believe that’s not enough. Philip J. Cenedella of the National Association of Human Trafficking Victim Advocates (NAHTVA) says they should, “stop all of these ads until they can guarantee 0.0% of the providers of the services are NOT trafficking victims, exploited women, men, girls and boys.” The challenge is the sheer number of ads that Google deals with on a regular basis and, even though the company does both manual and algorithmic reviews, bad ads seem to slip through all the time.

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Match.com Sues ‘Adult Dating’ Site XXXmatch

PAID CONTENT - Apr 5 - Match.com that promises “Love is complicated, Match.com is simple” is taking issue with a website that claims “Love is complicated, sex is simple.” In a trademark suit filed in Virginia federal court, Match claims the adult matchmaker has no right to use the names “xxxmatch.com” or “eroticmatch.com.” Match is asking for a court order forbidding the use of “xxxmatch” or the slogan “Love is complicated, sex is simple.” Match also wants the defendants, who are based in California and the Caribbean, to turn over their profits.

WLD.COM - Apr 4 - An established dating brand since 2004, Urban Social decided to migrate their dating site to the WhiteLabelDating.com platform so they could solely focus their time and budget on marketing and promotional activities. WhiteLabelDating.com will provide all of the back-end requirements such as the dating software, payment processing, customer support and hosting infrastructure.

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Skout: From Deadpool’s Door To $22M Funding

TECH CRUNCH - Apr 3 - Eighteen months ago Christian Wiklund’s company Skout was down to three people after burning much of the $4.6M it had raised since being founded in 2007. Wiklund and his co-founder Niklas Lindstrom put their heads down. They changed the app to focus on young people who wanted to meet strangers and singles who wanted to flirt. Skout’s new app came at a very lucky time in the market. The app supports ~300M messages per month and it’s signing up ~1M users per month. So on the back of this turnaround, Skout is raising $22M in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz. With the funding, Skout plans to find a new office that will hold 120 people.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS - Apr 2 - Few players go into online games such as "Words With Friends" looking for love. But the ability to "chat" within the contests can spur flirtations much like those in any other setting. While online dating sites let potential couples pre-gauge compatibility, online gaming, with its fictitious user names, lacks that initial openness. "Gaming contexts involve more anonymity and fantasy than online dating sites, which have pressures for honesty and accuracy in self-presentation," said communications professor Jennifer Gibbs of Rutgers University, who has studied the phenomenon. Courtships, then, proceed cautiously.

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Zoosk Launches Couple Profiles

THE NEXT WEB - Apr 2 - Couples can now build their joint profile on Zoosk and share their lives together. The combined account has a ‘Romantic Moments’ feature that can act as a repository for images, updates and comments on events like anniversaries, vacations, special moments and more. Zoosk is available in 25 languages and has members in ~70 countries. The company was founded in 2007 by Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr.

TECH CRUNCH - Apr 2 - Badoo is now powering HotOrNot. The financial terms were not disclosed. While Badoo bills itself more as a social network than a straight dating site, and Hotornot is more of a game-like ratings site, you can see how the two might complement each other as Badoo expands out the features it offers to users.

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